Field hospital no.2 – new milestone in Vietnam’s peacekeeping efforts

Staff of Vietnam's first level-2 field hospital take a picture in Ho Chi Minh City before leaving for the UN mission in South Sudan (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The second level-2
field hospital, recently set up by the Ministry of National Defence, is
considered a new landmark in Vietnam’s participation in the United Nations’
peacekeeping operations.

The field hospital no. 2 comprises 70 staff
members from the Vietnam Military Medical University. It is making preparations
to replace Vietnam’s first level-2 field hospital, which was deployed to the UN
mission in South Sudan last October.

Vietnam began joining in UN peacekeeping
operations in 2014. In its initial years, the country sent staff and liaison
officers and observers to several African nations, including South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

However, these deployments were separate
activities and did not reflect Vietnam’s efforts in sending military staff overseas.
The first real milestone in its participation in UN peacekeeping operations was
the dispatch of the level-2 field hospital no. 1 to Bentiu, South Sudan, on
October 1, 2018, said Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen
Chi Vinh.

He noted that Vietnam has committed to sending
another field hospital to peacekeeping operations.

Recently, the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping
Operations opened a pre-deployment training course for staff of the second
field hospital to help them gear up for taking over from the first field hospital.

The two hospitals have been designed so that
they can be ready to replace each other in peacekeeping operations.

However, with diverse functions, they will also
serve as mobile hospitals in emergency cases, like disaster search and rescue
in Vietnam, and take part in multilateral drills.

Lt. Gen. Do Quyet, Director of the Vietnam
Military Medical University, said that aside from training in medicine,
politics, logistics, and techniques, the university has also paid attention to
exchanging professional knowledge between the second hospital’s staff and
domestic and foreign experts. For example, they took part in joint exercises
with India and Thailand, received training in civil-military coordination in
Nepal, and engaged in peacekeeping training under the Global Peace Operations
Initiative in Bangladesh and Malaysia, he said.

The hospital’s apparatus has gradually been
consolidated to improve its capacity in line with the UN’s standards, including
providing check-ups and treatment for a maximum of 40 outpatients per day,
conducting three to four surgeries under anaesthesia per day, and providing treatment
for 20 inpatients per week. Additionally, the level-2 field hospital no. 2 also
needs to have two mobile first-aid teams and keep its equipment and medicine
ready for any circumstances.

Vietnam’s deployment of the level-2 field
hospital no.2 to UN peacekeeping operations will demonstrate the Vietnamese
people’s sense of responsibility towards and contribution to keeping global peace.
Each of its staff members is also a peace ambassador of the country in the
international arena.–VNA